This piece features the set of racked gongs called bonang,
thus the term gendhingbonang or large-scale piece for bonang.
This piece is composed in two sections (cycles or gongan), each
with 128 beats between strokes of the large gong. In order to count the
beats, one must listen to the metallophone players. This group plays the
same basic melody in several different octaves; the melody played by them
is called the balungan or skeleton. The relationship of this melody
to those played by other instruments is much like that of the skeleton
to the rest of the human body – if the melody is the bones, the bonang,
elaborating on the basic melody is like the skin and distinguishing features,
while the drums and gong, punctuating arrivals in the cycle as time passes
are like the heart and internal organs. In the first section, the drummer
settles the ensemble into a slow tempo allowing a focus on the artistry
of the bonang player; in the second section (minggah), the
tempo and volume gradually increase to the point at which it seems the
ensemble cannot play any faster or louder. The drummer then slows the ensemble
as we head toward the final gong. Gendhing Bonang are played outside
the inner palace walls of Central Java during the celebration of Mohammed’s
birthday, known as Sekaten. The ensembles used for this festival
are much larger than Nyai Saraswati. The metallophone slabs can measure
as much as four inches thick. A measure of the desired volume for these
sekaten
pieces, players may receive a reward from the sultan if they manage to
crack one of the slabs with the force of their stroke while performing.

This piece will begin with a pathetan or ametric mood piece,
used to set the correct feeling or rasa for the upcoming gendhing.
The pathetan is played by the soft-style elaborating instruments
which will be featured in the gendhing itself. The introduction
to the piece will be a solo male vocal piece called a bawa. The
particular melody and words for the bawa are determined by the singer
just before he sings. This gendhing is a favorite of Central Javanese
musicians and often is played during gatherings (klenengan) in which
musicians play music simply for their own and the enjoyment of others.
The bowed-fiddle, the gender (14-keyed metallophone), and the male
and female singers are featured in this piece. In the second section the
drummer will change drums and begin an intricate style of playing called
ciblonan,
an onomatopoeic term in Javanese describing the sound of hands playing
on the top of water. Whenever the drum is playing in this style, the bonang
players use an interlocking pattern with intermittent melodic flourishes
called flowerings or kembangan. The suite of pieces moves from longer
to shorter cycles, the ladrang has only 32 beats per cycle and the
ketawang only 16. After the end of the
ketawang another pathetan
is used to ease the transition from sound to silence and then everyday
communication.

After a mood setting pathetan, this lively piece, whose title means
to jokingly warn someone, sets off at a spritely tempo. In the second section
the drummer switches to ciblonan drumming and the basic melody moves at
twice the usual tempo. The name of the second section refers to two types
of sweet cakes, the first a wafer cookie and the second a rice fritter.

Langgam Wuyung Laras Pelog, Pathet Nem

The history of langgam is closely linked to that of kroncong, an Indonesian
song style with Portuguese influence and a history dating back to the 17th
century. Kroncong was made popular and national in the 1930’s and has experienced
periods of renewed interest to the present day. Kroncong orchestras are
string-based, using ukuleles, mandolins, slide guitar, guitars, cellos,
violins, with the occasional flute or clarinet. The ensemble accompanies
a singer, who croons his or her way through a familiar AABA song structure
based in western harmony. A "modern" music associated with Indonesian nationalism
in the 1940’s and 50’s, kroncong was subsequently Javanized, reorganized
so that the same melodies could be played on a gamelan orchestra, and renamed
langgam. The word wuyung refers to both sadness and infatuation or longing.

We will use a pathetan to begin this suite to help the musicians change
scale and mode. This piece has a first section composed of two different
melodic cycles. In the second of these cycles, the drummer instructs the
ensemble to stop twice for brief musical comments by a female vocalist.
The second and third sections of the piece feature a large mixed chorus.

Gamelan Nyai
Saraswati in Chapel Hill

Gamelan Nyai Saraswati
arrived in Chapel Hill from Central Java in December of 2000, thanks to
the generous support of David and Becky Pardue, Jim Peacock and the University
Center for International Studies (UCIS), and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Wrapped in Indonesian newspapers,
clove cigarette packing boxes, plastic "raffia" twine, and blackened by
three months at sea, a small group of devoted polishers met on a daily
basis in January of 2001 to polish and prepare for playing the nearly 70
bronze instruments which comprise Gamelan Nyai Saraswati The instruments
of a Central Javanese gamelan are conceived as an ensemble and then forged,
cast, and tuned in the workshop of one gong maker. An ensemble is usually
named. Prior to its voyage to America, this gamelan was named Gamelan Nyai
Saraswati by Bapak Sutina, the renowned performer of shadow puppetry and
father of the ensemble’s previous owner, Midiyanto S. Putra, who is performing
here with us tonight. The ensemble was cast and forged nearly 20 years
ago, long enough for the bronze to stop "shifting" which means that the
tuning has settled. The ensemble’s tuning has the highly valued and much
sought quality referred to as "manis" or "sweet" in the Javanese
language. Gamelan are tuned in two scales – laras pelog and laras
slendro – with instruments paired, one in each scale. With the exception
of the front row of performers, when the members of the ensemble are facing
predominantly out toward the audience, we are playing in laras slendro,
when facing in toward the center, we are playing in laras pelog.

After finding temporary housing
at the Chapel Hill Museum – thanks to the generosity of Morgan Kenney,
Director of the Museum – an informal group of students from a variety of
universities and several town’s people began to meet in February of 2001.
The group performed an informal concert for friends and the Board of the
UCIS in June of 2001. Since then the group has continued to grow, there
are now some 23 people involved in learning and performing Central Javanese
music.

A Brief
Introduction to Gamelan Music

Gamelan is a Javanese/Indonesian
word for ensemble. The word "gamel" means to hammer something in Javanese
and , indeed, "hammering" or hitting is the way in which most of the different
instruments in the ensemble are sounded with the exception of the two stringed
instruments – the bowed fiddle (rebab) and the plucked zither (siter)
– and the flute (suling), male chorus (gerong) and female
soloists (pasindhen). Most of the instruments are made from cast
bronze and are in the shape of hanging gongs (gong, kempul)
and racked gongs (bonang and kenong) which look like gongs
lying on their backs with the boss facing up towards the ceiling. There
are metallophones (saron) (like xylophones but made from metal,
in this case, bronze polished to a gleaming luster) and drums (kendhang)
played with the hands. The drummer and the bowed instrument player are
the leaders of the group, one determining melodic transitions and the other
determining rhythmic transitions. No single person stands in front of the
ensemble and conducts. The musicians must listen and rely on their understanding
of what is "usual" in a piece of any particular form and "special" or pamijen
in a particular piece in order to play it properly. The music is cyclic,
often composed of several different cycles, each of which is repeated an
undetermined number of times. Each cycle begins and ends with the stroke
of the biggest gong (gong agung) which is, itself, named Nyai Saraswati.
The length of individual cycles can be as short as 30 seconds or as long
as 20 minutes. As most pieces are composed of several different cycles,
each played several times, the duration of pieces can range from a few
minutes to more than an hour, rivaling a Mahler or Beethoven Symphony in
terms of complexity, movements, and duration.

The late 19th century
composer Claude Debussy heard gamelan at the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris.
He was transfixed and spent many days in the Dutch East Indies Pavilion
listening to the Indonesian musicians perform. He worked hard to understand
the structure and tuning. He later set about composing music inspired by
the Javanese music he heard. Some of the other composers who have been
inspired by Indonesian gamelan traditions include: Maurice Ravel; Oliver
Messiaen; Benjamin Britten; Colin McPhee; Harry Partch; John Cage; Lou
Harrison; Peter Sculthorpe; Anne Boyd; Steve Everett; and many contemporary
Indonesian composers such as I.M. Harjito; B. Subono; Tony Prabawa; Franki
Raden; I Wayan Sadra; and Otok Bima Sidarta.

Western musicians who hear
gamelan are struck both by the complexity of the relationships between
the melody lines of the different instruments and, if they are aware of
the "rules" of western harmony, by the almost "impressionistic" tone clusters
that can be heard if the listener hears the music vertically, or tries
to interpret it "harmonically".

People without musical training
often focus on the melifluousness of the sound and the soothing, meditative
quality of some of the music. Others are excited by the multileveled interlockingness
of the texture, comparing it to the experience of listening to several,
incredibly good jazz solo players improvising together.

Gamelan Nyai
Saraswati

Guest Artists

Sumarsam, Wesleyan University

I.M. Harjito, Wesleyan University

Midiyanto S. Putra, Lewis
and Clark College

Srihadeni Harjito, Wesleyan
University

Barry Drummond, Tufts University

Martin Hatch, Cornell University

Anne Stebinger, New York City
and Woodstock, NY

Kate Amerikaner

Allen Bell

Adam Cazzolla

Michelle Cronquist

Dan Daniels

Tony Day

Danny Devries

Paul Dionne

John Frick

Syam Gadde

Bob Goldstein

Ethan Lechner

Jeff Macciomei

Florence Peacock

Charles Porter

Erica Rothman

Will Senechal

Christen Sible

Sarah Starnes

Ann-Elise Stidham

Patricia Weigant

Sarah Weiss, Director

Special Thanks

Gamelan Nyai Saraswati
would like offer special thanks to David and Becky Pardue, without whom
we would not exist, to Jim Peacock and the University Center for International
Studies who helped transport the instruments from Java, and also to the
College of Arts and Sciences for supporting this project. John Nadas and
Jim Ketch, former and present chairs of the Department of Music were generous
with their patience and willingness to try something new and different.
To the multiple students who have hoisted and polished these instruments
more often than they ever imagined possible, thank you. Morgan Kenney and
the Board of the Chapel Hill Museum generously took us in and subsequently
made Central Javanese gamelan part of Chapel Hill’s history. Roland and
Wendy Intrator and the Chapel Hill Moving Company generously helped move
us from the Chapel Hill Museum. Thank you to Florence and Jim Peacock for
their enormous enthusiasm, and moral support. Thank you also to Erica Rothman
who knows alot of people and has alot of good ideas. Thank you to Paul
Cole, Martin Fields, David Aron, and George Huntley for all of their help
and support. Lastly, thank you to each of the guest artists who has travelled
far to perform with an old student. We have much more to learn from all
of you.